


Talking Tree

by demigold



Series: Soklarus [1]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Childhood Friends, First Meetings, Fluff, Gen, Growing Up, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Marcos is a hugger, Pre-Canon, sad yeehaw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-21 16:53:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17047007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demigold/pseuds/demigold
Summary: How Soren and Marcos met, grew up together, and began to lean on each other.





	Talking Tree

Sometimes Soren's dad was mean to him. He yelled a bit and loved his sister more than him and that made Soren upset. So he would run away from his dad and hide behind his favorite tree.

His tree was the safest place in the castle. It was close to a wall which meant he didn't have to worry about someone sneaking up on him. Soren could remember the first time he ever hid with the tree.

Soren had zoned out in one of his lessons. It wasn't his fault literature was boring. He didn't see the point in studying books if he was going to be like his dad and be the best at magic. He was going to make his dad super proud.

Besides, Soren would much rather be outside playing than reading. Or trying to read, he couldn't focus and he was pretty sure the words were wrong.

When his teacher caught him fidgeting, disregarding his book she told his dad. Needless to say he was not happy in the slightest. He hadn't gotten Soren a personal teacher for nothing.

As far as he was concerned, Soren was goofing off, refusing to do things out of childish whims. He wouldn't listen when his son tried to explain how the book was boring and running outside was fun. Matter of fact Soren's explanation made it worse.

His dad yelled really loud at him and kept invading his personal space. Soren didn't like that so he tried to scoot away. He wanted to keep distance. The yelling hurt his ears. His dad was so close it made him uncomfortable. Eventually his dad grew tired of his son's constant backing away so he grabbed him and shook him. Really hard. 

He threw him down and told Soren not to move. His dad got in his face again and Soren forgot what he'd been told. He crawled away and then his dad hit him. His dad told him to get out. His dad told him to not come back until dinner. His dad was scary.

Under the tree for the first time, Soren decided his dad was scary. It was only sometimes though. He was still a good dad, he was just mean sometimes. Soren was eight when he decided that. He promised he wouldn't make the same mistake again and he would pay attention in all his lessons.

Over the next two years Soren thought about how his dad was scary a lot. It was okay though because Soren made him mad.

 ~~Sometimes~~ he wished he was like his sister and he could make his dad proud. He tried really hard with math and literature and history (he liked history, there were so many cool people, Soren wishes he was as cool as them).

Soren was certain he was making his dad proud with how well he was doing in his lessons. Yet it seemed each time he did something remarkable, his sister did three somethings, each more remarkable than his.

Then his dad found out his sister was a prodigy with magic. She could do so many cool things (Soren wished he could do cool magic things like his sister) and his dad was so proud of her.

Soren try as he might could not do magic so he decided he was going to try his best with his lessons. His sister was good with her lessons and his dad liked her. If Soren was good at his lessons then his dad could like him. He could make his dad proud of him.

(Maybe if he showed his dad how smart he was. Maybe if he showed his dad he could be a good student. Maybe if he showed his dad he was a good son. Maybe if he showed his dad how smart he was. Maybe if he was smart. Was he smart?)

No, Soren wasn't smart. He couldn't pay attention in lessons and he read slow. His sister was smart. His sister was a good student. His sister was a good daughter. His sister was smart. Claudia was smart. Claudia could pay attention in lessons and could read fast.

Claudia was perfect. Claudia was a prodigy. Claudia could do magic. Claudia listened. Claudia didn't make dad mad. Claudia made dad proud. Claudia made Viren proud.

Soren decided he didn't like Claudia and he didn't like Viren. Soren was nine when he decided that. He stopped caring about his lessons. Viren pulled him from his private lessons and put him in lessons with "other castle brats his age".

There he met all sorts of kids. Some of them had parents who were guards. Some had parents who worked the kitchen, others had parents who kept the castle clean. One kid's parents worked the library. Another kid was the son of a well off guard. It was in those shared lessons Soren decided two more things.

The first was after he observed who all the kids were friends with. It seemed the kid who made the funniest jokes and was the most outgoing had the most friends. Soren really wanted friends so he decided being funny was important and that he would be funny.

The second was the kids thought being a guard was a cool job. They thought the guards who fought the best, had the highest rank, and were the most accomplished were the best people ever. So Soren decided he wanted to be a guard. Soren was ten when he decided that. 

A couple weeks after, he told Viren how he wanted to be the best guard. Viren laughed and brushed him off, but his son kept repeating it. It was beginning to irritate Viren. He didn't want his son to be a guard. The next time Soren brought it up, Viren slapped him and called him a fool and disappointment.

So there Soren was, behind his tree, tucked under the limbs and leafs.

He rubbed his hands on his knees and sniffled. It wasn't fair. Whenever Claudia shared something with Viren he at least _pretended_ to care. Not with Soren though, because Viren didn't need him to waste Claudia time.

They frustrated him so much and he knew it wasn't fair to be mad at Claudia, but he just couldn't help it. She was the reason Viren never paid attention to him. She was the reason he was never proud of him.

Soren leaned back against the wall and slumped to the dirt. He let his tears fall off the side of his cheek and onto the ground. The ones that rolled off his nose tickled a bit and he almost laughed, but he wasn't allowed to do anything happy. He was supposed to be sad. Soren just wanted to wallow in his misery because things weren't fair and that just wasn't _fair_.

Yes, the world really was not fair at all because it was in that moment his pity party was interrupted. 

"Hey, can you stop moving somebody's gonna see us and I really wanna win this time," said the tree.

The ten year old's head instantly perked up and looked at the tree in confusion. It had never talked to him before.

"Win what?" Soren was thoroughly confused. How could a tree play let alone win a game.

The tree gave an exasperated sigh and replied, "Seriously? We're playing hide and seek."

"How can you play hide and seek? Trees can't move."

"I'm not a tree, stupid," the tree retorted.

"Then what are you?"

"A human, duh."

Soren took a second to think about how stupid he was. How could they have not been a human. Squirrels and birds didn't (as far as he knew) talk. And it's not like they would have been an elf. An elf would not have talked it would have killed him before he could even think about yelling. Stupid stupid stupid.

"C'mon, did you seriously think I was a pigeon or an elf or something." If Soren could see the kid in the tree he was certain they were rolling their eyes. "Don't you recognize me, it's Marcos, from lessons." 

"Oh." Soren sat up and numbly brushed the dust and dirt off his sleeve.

Since Marcos was playing hide and seek with some other kids, he stopped talking. Soren took that as a sign that he was being quiet enough. 

Then the bruise on his cheek started throbbing. It made him think about Viren and what he yelled. Any control Soren had gained over his tears vanished and he began to cry again. Usually he was a silent crier, not naturally, but out of necessity. Viren didn't like the sound of crying.

The warm tears fell down his cheeks faster and faster until his noiseless heaving became a vocal sob. Why, of all times to loudly cry, did it have to be in front of his classmate.

Apparently, not even the embarrassment of it could stop Soren from crying. Although, at this point it could more or less be called bawling. Soren hugged his legs to his chest. Why couldn't he pull himself together.

"Are you-" Marcos started to ask before he was cut off by a louder heave from the boy below.

Marcos hastily hoisted his legs over one branch after another and climbed down the tree. He missed the final footing and dropped gracelessly to the ground. The fall hurt a bit, but he couldn't groan over it. He turned around and looked to his classmate.

"Soren, are you okay?" The dark haired boy scooted closer to the other in front of him.

He remembered how his mom would hug his siblings when they were upset. When they were crying, his mom's hugs always got them to stop, even if it took a couple of minutes.

Maybe Marcos should try hugging the kid. If it worked on his siblings surely it would work on him. So Marcos sat next to Soren and awkwardly wrapped his arms around the other kid's shoulders. 

”Do you want to get a muffin?” Marcos asked Soren after he’d finished crying. “Muffins make me happy. I thought they might help.”

”Can we do that?”

”Sure!” Marcos stood up and offered his hand to Soren. 

He helped the other up and turned to walk inside when Soren said, “Wait, what about your hide and seek?” 

”It can wait.” He shrugged. “You’re sad and muffins will help.”

 

* * *

 

Marcos dragged him to the kitchen hall, but stopped outside the door. He dropped Soren’s hand to fish something out of his pockets. It was a doodled on napkin.

He handed it to Soren and explained, “Dad doesn’t like it when I make a mess. You can use this napkin, but give it back later.”

Soren nodded, his fingers curled around the napkin. He examined the doodles and writing on it. Several times was Marcos’ signature scrawled out, some sloppy some neater. There were little botched attempts at drawing horses. The best piece on the napkin was the large sword with intricate detail.

Apparently, he’d spent a second too long oggling the sword because Marcos piped up to explain.

”That’s my mom’s. She’s a guard.”

”Your mom’s a guard? That’s so cool!”

”Yeah.” Marcos smiled as he opened the door for Soren. “I want to be a guard so she teaches me a bit sometimes. I think she’s proud I want to be a guard like her. So far all my siblings like less athletic things.”

”I want to be a guard, but Viren doesn’t really want me to. He likes Claudia more because she’s smart and’ll follow him.”

They continued into the kitchen and politely sidestepped anyone that came by. Marcos waved to a few cooks. Then he leaned up to a counter and gave the biggest smile.

”Can I have some muffins?” Marcos asked. He stood on his toes and whispered, “My friend’s sad.”

”Of course buddy.”

The man handed three muffins to Marcos and ruffled his hair.

”Thank you, Dad!”

Marcos turned around and lead Soren back out of the kitchen. He looked back for a second. His brows furrowed, then his eyes widened and he quickened his pace with new direction.

“Where are we going?” Soren questioned as Marcos rushed ahead.

”Back to the tree. I was going to go to a tower, but that’s a lot of stairs.”

“You don’t have to be nice to me. Viren says I make being nice to hard.”

”Then Viren’s a mean, awful person. You haven’t done anything wrong. Besides, I like being nice. It’s what friends do!”

Soren smiled. He’d never had anyone be his friend before. Or at least genuinely. When he was younger, a couple kids tried to befriend him for benefit, but Viren stopped any attempts no matter their intent.

Viren would definitely try to turn Marcos away from Soren. If he found out. Maybe he liked the prospect of having a goodwilled friend. In that case, he’d just have to make sure Viren never found out.

After all, Soren thought, he’s sort of fond of the idea of having a friend.

They sat down, back under the tree.

”Here’s your muffin. We can split the third kn half.” Marcos handed it to the other, a gentle grin on his face.

Soren nodded his thanks, along with a whispered verbal gratitude. He bit into the muffin and thought of how he needed to talk to Marcos the next school day.

Friends was good.


End file.
